Firms face tough buying decisions following the launch of Intel's Centrino technology last week. IT Week Labs tests show Centrino can give laptops longer battery life and improved performance, but high prices and extra admin costs mean this may not be enough to sway firms that have already invested in Pentium 4 mobiles.

Centrino laptops integrate wireless LAN (WLAN) capabilities with a processor optimised for a long battery life. However, many firms have only just bought laptops based on the Mobile Pentium 4-M chips released last March. Intel promoted the P4-M and its 845 chipset around the idea that firms could deploy a single disk image for desktops and laptops. But new drivers may mean Centrino products need a separate disk image.

Another drawback is that Centrino notebooks are initially selling for about £1,300 but some Pentium 4-M laptops are hundreds of pounds cheaper. "We expect new customers will go with Centrino, but existing corporate accounts will stay with the mobile Pentium 4 for now," said Kenneth Chan, Toshiba's UK portable product manager.

In IT Week Labs tests, Centrino laptops' batteries lasted longer but the gain was not as great as predicted by Intel. Toshiba's Tecra S1 achieved the longest battery life at about five hours but it had a larger than standard battery. The Toshiba Portégé R100 lasted no longer than its Pentium III sibling.

Performance tests show that Centrino models match Pentium 4 laptops running at higher clock speeds. As a result, users should expect to see better battery life for a given level of performance.

Staff accustomed to setting up 802.11 wireless LAN systems will find Intel's Mini PCI adapter easy to manage, but users will still need IT staff to set up security and access rights.

We achieved respectable 802.11b transfer rates of 5Mbit/s, using peer-to-peer links and also connecting direct to a Compaq WL1510 access point. But accessing large amounts of data could drain the battery quickly: transferring a CD-ROM's worth of data cut the R100's battery life by a third.

Intel insists that models bearing the Centrino brand must have its WLAN adapter to guarantee interoperability. However, HP is shipping its new Compaq Evo N620c with WLAN as an option and Dell and IBM are shipping some laptops with adapters from other vendors, for firms that have standardised on WLAN kit from third-party suppliers such as Cisco. These models will be labelled Pentium M, the new mobile chip on which Centrino is based.

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